Will Frears is an award-winning theatre and film director. His New York credits include Misery (Broadway), Still Life (MCC), The Water’s Edge (Second Stage), Pen (Playwright’s Horizons), Terrorism (The New Group/Play Company), Rainbow Kiss (The Play Company), Where We’re Born (Rattlestick), God Hates the Irish (Rattlestick), and the Pulitzer finalist Omnium Gatherum. His film credits include All Saints Day and Coach. His writing has appeared in The Paris Review, New York Magazine, The London Review of Books, and Eight by Eight. He holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

Will Frears in interviewed by Jillian Jetton '23 and Michelle Cowles '22

The SLC Performance Lab is produced by ContemporaryPerformance.com and the Sarah Lawrence College MFA Theatre Program. During the course, visiting artists to the MFA Theatre Program's Grad Lab are interviewed after leading a workshop with the students. Grad Lab is one of the core components of the program where graduate students work with guest artists and develop group-generated performance experiments.

Will Frears - Episode 03.04 SLC Performance Lab

Produced by ContemporaryPerformance.com and the Sarah Lawrence College MFA Theatre Program, the SLC Performance lab interviews visiting artists to the MFA Theatre Program's Grad Lab, one of the core classes of the program where grads work with guest artists and develop group generated performance pieces monthly.

Jennifer Kidwell’s (b. 1978) poignant, performer-driven theater work addresses the complexities of race and notions of American history with sharp intelligence and wry humor. Invested in probing challenging social and historical truths, Kidwell says her work is “concerned with discomfort and/or confusion around normative practices and systems.” With Scott Sheppard, she premiered and performed in Underground Railroad Game, lauded by The Philadelphia Inquirer as a “brilliant theatrical commentary on contemporary race relations.” A graduate of Pig Iron Theatre Company’s School for Advanced Performance Training, Kidwell created and appeared in the company’s Center-funded project, I Promised Myself to Live Faster, and The Wilma Theater’s production of Antigone. For the 2014 Whitney Biennial, she performed in Joe Scanlan’s provocative piece Dick’s Last Stand as the artist Donelle Woolford. She is co-artistic director of the theater company Lightning Rod Special and co-founder of the Brooklyn-based performance space JACK. She holds a BA in English and comparative literature from Columbia University.

Edited and Produced by Kyrie Ellison (SLC21)

Episode 01.01 SLC Performance Lab With Jennifer Kidwell

Produced by ContemporaryPerformance.com and the Sarah Lawrence College MFA Theatre Program, the SLC Performance lab interviews visiting artists to the MFA Theatre Program's Grad Lab, one of the core classes of the program where grads work with guest artists and develop group generated performance pieces monthly.

Deb Margolin is a playwright, actor, and founding member of Split Britches Theater Company. She is the author of numerous plays, including Imagining Madoff, Turquoise, and Bringing the Fishermen Home, as well as 10 solo performance plays which she has toured throughout the US, the most recent of which is 8 STOPS, a comedy concerning the grief of endless compassion! 8 STOPS takes a long, humorous, tender look at motherhood, the suburbs, the fear of death, and the inheritability of ideas.

Interviewed by Joanna Eisenberg (SLC 20) and  Kyrie Ellison's (SLC21)

Edited and Produced by Kyrie Ellison (SLC21)

Episode 01.02 SLC Performance Lab With Deb Margolin

Produced by ContemporaryPerformance.com and the Sarah Lawrence College MFA Theatre Program, the SLC Performance Lab interviews visiting artists to the MFA Theatre Program’s Grad Lab, one of the core classes of the program where grads work with guest artists and develop group generated performance pieces monthly.

Our second episode features Puppeteer, Designer, and Teacher, Tom Lee

Edited and Produced by Kyrie Ellison (SLC21)

Episode 01.03 SLC Performance Lab With Tom Lee

Produced by ContemporaryPerformance.com and the Sarah Lawrence College MFA Theatre Program, the SLC Performance Lab interviews visiting artists to the MFA Theatre Program’s Grad Lab, one of the core classes of the program where grads work with guest artists and develop group generated performance pieces monthly.

Our Fourth episode features composer and singer Kamala Sankaram

Edited and Produced by Kyrie Ellison (SLC21)

Episode 01.04 SLC Performance Lab With Kamala Sankaram

Doug Wright Interviewed by Rebecca Geminn and Kyrie Ellison
Doug Wright (Playwright) earned the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for his play I Am My Own Wife. Other Broadway works include War Paint, Grey Gardens (Tony nomination), The Little Mermaid and Hands on a Hardbody. Film credits include Quills, based on his Obie Award-winning play and nominated for three Academy Awards. Television credits include Tony Bennett: An American Classic, directed by Rob Marshall. Honors include the Benjamin Dank Prize (the American Academy of Arts and Letters), the Tolerance Prize (Kulturforum Europa) and the Paul Selvin Award (Writers Guild of America). He is the president of the Dramatists Guild, a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, a frequent guest at Yaddo, and serves on the board of the New York Theatre Workshop. Mr. Wright is married to singer/songwriter David Clement. Photo Credit: Joan Marcus.

Edited and Produced by Kyrie Ellison (SLC21)

Episode 01.05 SLC Performance Lab With Doug Wright

Sarah Lawrence College MFA Theatre Program has partnered with ContemporaryPerformance.com to produce the SLC Performance Lab Podcast. The SLC Performance lab interviews visiting artists to the MFA Theatre Program’s Grad Lab, one of the core classes of the program where graduate students work with guest artists and develop group generated performance pieces each monthly.